I have been looking into buying one of these:
http://www.playtech.co.nz/product.php?acti...ail&id=5778
My UHF aerial signal reception is rated: "Unlikely" However it said if I got a satellite, my reception score hits: "Very likely"
I want to know if this is a UHF signal receiver or a satellite signal receiver. It don't specifically state either.
For those of you who don't know what "Freeview" is, it is a New Zealand Digital "Free to Air" station with all channels usually on analogue in HD quality.
I want this to receive it on my laptop.
Any ideas?
' Wrote:I have been looking into buying one of these:
http://www.playtech.co.nz/product.php?acti...ail&id=5778
My UHF aerial signal reception is rated: "Unlikely" However it said if I got a satellite, my reception score hits: "Very likely"
I want to know if this is a UHF signal receiver or a satellite signal receiver. It don't specifically state either.
For those of you who don't know what "Freeview" is, it is a New Zealand Digital "Free to Air" station with all channels usually on analogue in HD quality.
I want this to receive it on my laptop.
Any ideas?
the device linked is a DVB-T T stands for terestial aka tv aerial
if your reception isnt excellent i wouldn't get one of thede i have 2 and they are very dependant on good signal
i recommend you get the satellite alternative it is known as DVB-S and get an engineer to find you a dish with a gain to match your locality
mine are hauppauge pci cards hardware is ok software is troublesome i use ulead videostudio instead
interference causes glitches for me they are problematic with re-encoding to avi due to lipsync problems
hope this helps
loneshark
You are my favorite person of the month sir!
+1 You obviously have extensive knowledge in this area!:)
I do have some questions though. Is the DVB-S receiver any more expensive? The whole point of me getting one was so I could have Freeview TV wherever I went. When you say get an engineer to recommend a dish...Well, it doesn't sound all that portable.
Are there receivers of similar size that will pick up satellite like GPS for example?
Big thanks!:cool:
' Wrote:You are my favorite person of the month sir!
+1 You obviously have extensive knowledge in this area!:)
I do have some questions though. Is the DVB-S receiver any more expensive? The whole point of me getting one was so I could have Freeview TV wherever I went. When you say get an engineer to recommend a dish...Well, it doesn't sound all that portable.
Are there receivers of similar size that will pick up satellite like GPS for example?
Big thanks!:cool:
Pricewise you shouldn't find much difference, they are only a few DVB chipsets so they are pretty much generic devices, paying more will not get you better hardware. However the software they throw in can vary the price and its usefullness to you is the most relevant factor when deciding.
Freeview wherever you go is another issue completely. Do not think for a minute that the supplied stick aerial will be any use whatsoever unless you are within a few km of the transmitter and with clear line of site. Also expect high battery drain so run on mains power whenever poss. If you are able to plug 'directly' in to a fixed aerial then you may get enough signal for reception (signal boosters only sometimes work), note well that PC type recievers are not as good as tvs and set-top boxes at getting a reliable picture. In short expect dissapointment with DVB-T in a mobile scenario, i wont say it will never work but from your signal reports i would be extremely doubtfull. On the whole DVB-S is a more reliable proposition but is almost allways dependant on a fixed dish, portable 'camping' type setups are available but as the dishes of these are sub 0.5m they are unlikely to work for you (and they arent very plug and play either). If a multiple LNB is fitted to a dish you could piggy back on to an existing installation (fitting 1 is easy a simple swap and add cables just dont move the dish).
The dish or aerial is the key to it working and is the hidden 'size' to what is otherwise a deceptively small USB dongle. A ballpark guide to the size you will need is to look at what is fitted to houses in the area you wish to operate in. In the end i think you will share my conclussion that true PC DVB mobility is a lost cause or at least not worth the chase. I only watch previously recorded material on my laptop letting the desktop do recording and serving on a wireless LAN and that is not in the native DVB format (mpeg-ts) but a Xvid compressed avi which is a whole different topic. My final choice of card included a composite input so i can convert a signal from any scart output to mpg so i can record whatever i can watch on a regular tv. To just plain watch tv i watch a tv they just do it better.
Sorry if this puts a damper on your plans.
loneshark
That is a lot to swallow.
Looks like "portable Freeview" isn't really an option anymore.
However, we do have a computer running 24/7 monitoring phones and such. I could buy a Hauppauge PCI card and plug it into my computer, hook the card up to a dish, record stuff on to the 1TB hard drive in the computer and share the recorded video over a network?
:cool:
You choice of DVB-S is a good 1 (remember to fit a multi-head LNB for all your satellite needs
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=47171 is an example ).
I would look into 3rd party software particularly if you buy Hauppauge (checkout their forums). When setting up think the same way you would for Freelancer and kill the stuff in your tray etc. And if you really intend to commit to this a twin tuner card is a wise choice cos the good stuf is always on at the same time (hence the LNB above). Doing this does require suitable software so check what you get will allow it. Obviously the software must support scheduling of recordings, some require a subsciption to an online service though you always have the manual input method.
Windows MCE has advantages as an OS for the job. Linux will do it with their Myth TV (i tried a live distro and it worked fine (though the availability of drivers for tv cards is limiting, i'm just too scarred to commit to installing it, maybe 1 day in a multiboot setup). I use XP PRO and that works ok, any other OS i cant speak for.
Hauppauge bless their cotton socks never seem to stop bringing out updates for their software (the newest didnt improve things for me, a step back i thought) maybe 1 day it will be 100% compatable with all PCs. I have never used any Pinacle hardware or software so i wont offer a opinion on it. Checkout forums and review sites for whatever you think you may use.
It is possible for TV stations to mess with the signal processing and cause a PC recording to fail, thereby preventing pirating of the program. Sometimes they just plain get it wrong. Either way you will be unlikely to achieve 100% sucsess, 99.9% perhaps.
Another point to note is these cards do get hot so include some method of cooling and give a graphics card some space from it. USB is not so badly heated and does get the heat out of your case if thats an issue for you (i went internal and got a case with 220mm side fan).
Freeview and not so Freeview, we do have alot of subscription only Freeview channels now its been operating a couple of years and i believe it is possible to get devices capable of processing them but i have never seen 1 or even heard of anyone using them. While at the moment there is plenty of stations available for free i can see that more popular 1s are becoming subscription only. I suspect that will be they way with the majority, freeview just being a 'proving ground' for payed concepts.
Anyway good luck with it.
loneshark